Harbeth vs JM Reynaud

Another vote for Reynaud here. I've owned Twin Signatures, Cantabile Supremes, and Offrandes Supreme V2s. On the Harbeth side I've owned SHL5s and 30.1s. Both of which left my house within a few months. Twice I went to Harbeth's in between Reynauds, because of so much hype, and twice I was disappointed. I truly wanted to love Harbeth's. Still I'd call them excellent speakers, and had I never heard Reynaud maybe I would have kept them, but that wasn't the case. To me Reynauds cut to the heart of the music, they transfer what's on the recording to a musical experience. Harbeth's make a beautiful, though somewhat boring sound. But because you heard and loved 30.1s I wouldn't feel comfortable guaranteeing you'd prefer Reynauds, they're different enough that you simply must hear them.

"10-12-15: Wim1983
Ryder, Zd542: I agree with Zd542 about sound coming out from driver, it just not so easy to tame. Hmm, I dun get it, the Denton and Jade 3 is designed by same person. But the Denton sound very forgiving, although cannot say easy to drive, but works with clean power, while the Jade 3 goes to other end, sound very unforgiving and makes matching harder a lot, does not make sense. While I've heard Harbeth is very forgiving in gear matching, I believe clean power is still needed for better distortions handling. How about the JM Reynaud, are they designed to sound forgiving in a broad range of music?"

I may have answered at least part of this in the other thread you were posting in, but maybe I can give some more info here. When you talk about how a speaker is meant to sound, and are surprised to find out that 2 speakers designed by the same person can sound very different, its very hard to put this into context without actually listening. High end speakers and components are not meant to be bought without some type of demo. There can be many legitimate reasons why a designer may make different sounding speakers. To get the system that's right for you, you have to put the time and effort into it. Its not always easy, but that's just the way it is.

Let me give you an example from a speaker designers perspective. Looking at the situation from a different perspective may be helpful. My favorite speaker, and a company I know very well is Vandersteen. Before I start, I'm not trying to sell you on this brand, I'm just using them as an example because I've been dealing with them for a long time and know a lot about them.

Vandersteen understands what it is that you are going through as a person trying to trying to buy the right speaker. Like many other good brands, they know it can be very difficult, and they take steps to make the process as easy as they can for potential buyers. If you think about it, its the same type of problem, just in reverse. The consumer needs to buy the right speaker to be happy, and the speaker manufacturer needs to sell speakers to people who will be happy with them. The way they do this is to let only the best qualified retailers sell their speakers. Vandersteen is extremely picky about who they let sell their products. If they can't find a dealer that meets their high standards in any particular area, they choose not to sell their product there. They won't compromise. If you go to their web site and look at their dealer list here in the US, you'll see that they don't have at least 1 dealer in many of our 50 states. Its not even close. They need dealers that know how to set the speakers up, match them with the best components, actually carry the best components in their store and have an extremely good reputation in the audiophile community. If a store doesn't have all that, he won't even consider letting them become a dealer. What I'm getting at with all this, is to show how important, and difficult it can be, to make the right choices. And the better manufacturers know this, and do as much as they can to make sure their products get sold to the people that should by buying them.

I hope this info helps. Its unfortunate, but the magazines never talk about stuff like this. As a result, so many new people don't get the results they expect, and end up walking away from audio in frustration.

@Jtnicolosi: What's missing in Harbeth? Is it the bass impact? I will be very hard to believe if those Harbeth does not sound good in most of all especially in vocal.

Wim1983: simply put Harbeths don't draw me into the music like Reynauds do. The issue with the 30.1's had nothing to do with bass, I simply didn't connect with them. After all the whole point of this entire hobby is to be emotionally moved by music isn't it? Admitidly this is all rather unscientific, which is why I only speak for myself, but since others who have gone from Harbeth to Reynaud have felt the same way, I'd say objectively as possible that they are the more engaging speaker. If you want reserved and "neutral", Harbeth would be the right pick.

@Jtnicolosi: It seem it is more musical color on Reynauds than Harbeth, the 30.1 monitor flat, colorless, neutral and transparency could be a bit too much, which happen to be too analytical and clinical I suppose?